Europe is confronted with a dramatic emergency, a war of aggression which has already caused civil victims, mass displacement and even fear about a nuclear war and energy crisis. There is initial evidence that a proportion of refugees or forcibly displaced persons from Ukraine suffer from the consequences of traumatic events and exhibit psychological problems putting them at risk for mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive and anxiety disorders and relapses in psychotic episodes. The direct and indirect consequences of this humanitarian catastrophe cannot be estimated at present, but mental healthcare services need to develop or expand strategies to address them including language- and culture sensitive are, access to treatment, and the unusually high proportion of children and adolescent refugees in this group. In this joint symposium, strategies from different countries will be presented and discussed.
08:30 Uhr
Mental health consequences of forcibly displaced people – an overview
T. Wenzel (Wien, AT)
09:14 Uhr
High number of refugees in Poland – which strategy is being pursued
J. Samochowiec (Stettin, PL)
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Autor:in:
J. Samochowiec (Stettin, PL)
The year 2022 has marked a very high number of displaced people in Europe.
Due to the Russian aggression on Ukraine, 4 mln Ukrainian citizens decided to seek refuge in Poland.
Displaced individuals suffer from the consequences of traumatic events, exhibit psychological problems or develop mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive and anxiety disorders or relapses of psychotic episodes.
The presented data shows the number of Ukrainian patients with different psychiatric diagnoses receiving treatment in Poland in the period between Feb 2022 and Aug 2022 (6 months).
Incidentally, it has also been a period of transformations in mental health care in Poland. The following presentation contains data on this topic, too.
Examples of involvement and strategies of helping refugees and own members from different National Psychiatric Associations belonging to EPA and the NPA Council will be presented and discussed.
The Polish Ministry of Health has started implementation of a reform of the mental health care system for adult as well as children and adolescent psychiatry. The reform follows the model proposed by the WHO, which is embodied by two key challenges referred to as 'deinstitutionalisation' and 'destigmatisation'.
This fundamental reform should comprise three main actions, i.e. integration of mental health services into primary healthcare; establishment of community psychiatric services together with the provision of inpatient services in general hospitals; and limitation of the role of mental hospitals to specific tasks only (long-term or specialist treatment).
In summary: the total number of patients who received mental health care has increased as compared to the time before the establishment of mental health care Centers; whereas the number of hospitalisations has decreased by 6% and the number of patient days per person by 9%. These results confirm the effectiveness of the implemented National Mental Health Protect